Yankees pitchers star in funniest ad in MLB history

This is a screen grab of the New York Yankees' commercial featuring All-Star relievers Dellin Betances and Aroldis Chapman.

By BILLY JOE JESSUP

I’m no fan of the New York Yankees.

My hatred runs so deep I call them the Bronx Bombing Bastards.

I cheer for the Houston Astros and we’re the defending champions this year. If we repeat, we’ll be one more step closer to the number of Yankees World Series titles.

I’ll take Jose Altuve, Houston’s little big man, over New York giant Aaron Judge any day, but gosh dang it, I’ve got to give the Yankees props for the new TV ad helping to promote their 2018 season.

Hell, it’s the funniest baseball commercial I’ve ever seen.

The ad’s big stars are relievers Dellin Betances and Aroldis Chapman. David Robertson, Tommy Kahnle and Chad Green, also members of the bullpen, play supporting roles.

It’s entertaining that the Cuban-born Chapman serves as one of the spokesmen. He’s no English language honor roll graduate, but I will not besmirch him for that. He can besmirch my 20 mph fastball and the fact that the only foreign language I know is Twang.

A 2016 NJ Advance Media story said Chapman has “been in the United States since 2010 after defecting from Cuba, but still does almost all of his talking in Spanish.”

Betances, who is from Puerto Rico, is the main pitchman in the commercial because he speaks English.

Chapman is limited to saying “we bring the heat.” He says the four words five times.

The first time I saw the ad was this week, when it was mocked on the nightly Viceland comedy show “Desus and Mero.”

Sometimes I have trouble understanding those two guys maybe because I’m too white and unhip, but like Betances and Chapman, they raise the heat of hilarity, especially in this 2017 clip.

Billy Joe Jessup, 66, is a Mississippi good old boy who saw himself as the Southern Richard Meltzer back in 1974 and 1975. Jessup wrote two satiric sports articles for the rock music magazine Zoo World when he was in his early 20s, but ZW rejected his third article, killing his confidence so much that he battled writer's block for more than four decades until his Guy Hut breakthrough in March 2018.

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